He stared at the statue without a thought in his head. His nerves began to build up like clouds
on a rainy day. He felt his heart beat—1, 2….1, 2. He counted every explosion against his chest.
“How can I compete with this”, he said with a long sigh. He touched the statue as if it was a new
born baby. He knew – yes he knew – that to beat this, he had to consistently work hard to
accomplish his goal. He walked away smiling, knowing that this day was going to be the start of
a new age; an age that would define who he was going to turn out to be.
He woke up the next morning in his tent. He heard the birds chirping, a river, that was miles
away, roaring. He crawled out of his neatly built tent and looked around. He instantly fell in love
with the quietness in the forest. No cars…..no people….just him. He felt like he was the only
man on earth, even though he knew he wasn’t. He rubbed his messy hair and….and…there it
was; the mountain. He saw it sitting there, miles away. It never moved; it just sat there, looking
over the forest. Even though it looked beautiful, he wanted to defeat it. There was one thing
that this mountain had that he so desired wanted to see; the Statue.
He was packing up his things. He wasn’t rushing, but it seemed like he was in a rush. He stuffed
his covers in what he called “the adventure bag”. He folded his sleeping bag and tied it up extra
tight with a string he had mysteriously found in the forest. His eyes were glazing around again.
“The time is now”, he said to himself while strapping his bag to his back. He started for his walk.
The crunching of the leaves and branches were the only sounds that he was hearing. His
breathing began to get deeper. He felt his heart drop in his stomach. Thinking about climbing
this mountain made him want to reconsider and turn around, but he knew he couldn’t do that.
He was almost halfway there to his destination and he couldn’t give up now. Then he
stopped….he heard a sound. He turned around….nothing. He looked around….nothing. He
heard someone whistle. “Hey!”. He turned around again to see a woman with her track suit on
appear from behind a tree. “Hey, I saw you over at that mountain”, she said, pointing behind
her. “OH, yeah….”, he said. There was a long silence until the woman said, “Well I gotta run, but
good luck climbing that mountain. You’ll need it”. He started to say, “how did you…”, but she
faded away in the distance.
His walk was beginning to feel like heaven. He didn’t know why, but he was feeling more
pumped than ever. His adrenaline juices were flowing, his heart was pounding, and he was a
mile from his destination. He didn’t have a plan. He knew what he was going to do….Climb.
That’s all he was going to do. Piece of cake, right? He thought so, until he arrived. He was a tiny
ant compared to this gigantic monster. His thoughts of going back home completely faded
away. His face crumbled into a look of confidence. All he had to do was climb.
“Hand, foot…hand, foot”. He took his time; No pressure. No one was going to steal his prize, so
he had time; lots of time. “Don’t look down”, he said to himself. He had it. He was halfway
there! All he needed to do was focus. “Focus, focus, focus”, he said out loud slowly, to where
everybody could possibly hear him. He paused. He was trying to find a slot to fit his hand in, so
he could pull up. His hand tapped loudly against the rock, and then something happened. His
hand slipped off! He caught on just in time and pulled up with all his strength. He made it!
He stared at the statue without a thought in his head. His nerves began to build up like clouds
on a rainy day. He felt his heart beat—1, 2….1, 2. He counted every explosion against his chest.
“I did it ”, he said with a long sigh. He touched the statue as if it was a new
born baby. He knew – yes he knew – that he made a huge accomplishment, and he worked
hard for it. He walked away smiling, knowing that this day was going to be the start of a new
age; an age that would define who he was going to turn out to be.